Walpole Public Library Endowment
Walpole Public Library Endowment Trust
About the Trust
Background
Trustees
Building Fund Donation
What We Face
Expanding Population
Increasing Demand / Need for Services
New Forms of Information
What We'd Like to Do
The Walpole Public Library Endowment was created in 2001 to supplement funds flowing to the Library from the Town of Walpole. The trust document explicitly forbids using the Endowment to replace funds given by the Town to support library services. The Endowment will focus on improving the Library's collections which will provide new and special programming and services.
How it Works
Individuals, businesses or foundations can contribute to the Endowment through gifts of cash, publicly traded securities or property. Gifts are held in perpetuity to provide capital that will generate an on-going and reliable source of future income for the Library. by establishing and growing this endowment, we assure that the Library will be able to meet the demands of a growing Community.
The funds are professionally managed to ensure the safety of capital and maintain a proper balance between meeting income requirements and preserving capital to meet future needs.
A Tradition continued
The Walpole Public Library has played an important part in our Community since 1876. A long tradition of private giving has enriched the Library throughout these 125 years. The Endowment builds on that tradition of strong community support.
Endowment Features
Continuity - Gifts will continue to provide support to the library over the years.
Perpetuity - The Endowment has been established for the assurance that the proceeds will be used to provide library resources for the community well beyond the donor's lifetime.
Tax benefits - Donations are deductible to the extent allowed by the IRS Code.
Ways of Contributing
There are many ways contributors can give. The manner in which you give is a matter of personal preference. Contributions may take the form of:
Gifts of cash
Gifts of property
Gifts of stock or securities
Memorial gifts
Gifts through a corporation or business
Bequests in wills
If you would like to help build the Library's legacy with a contribution to the Endowment, you may do so by sending a gift payable to the Walpole Public Library Endowment Trust c/o Walpole Public Library, 65 Common St. Walpole, MA 02081. If you have questions or a need for further information please contact the Library Director at 508-660-7334.
WPL Trust Background Top of Page
The residents of Walpole were early in recognizing the importance of a free lending library. In 1876 a library was authorized by Town Meeting and begun in the back of Frank Pillsbury's Pharmacy. Later in 1903 a gift of land by Charles Bird was combined with a donation of $15,000 by Andrew Carnegie and a town appropriation of $5,000 to build a new library at the corner of Lewis Avenue and Common Street. Later, in 1968, a new section facing Common Street was added.
Since 1968 the capacity of the library has remained the same even as the town has grown and the role of libraries has expanded. Steps have been taken to deal with these strains. In 1975 the library joined with other southeastern Massachusetts communities to form the Old Colony Library Network. This network vastly expands the number of volumes available to Walpole's residents to almost 2,000,000 volumes. Yet despite these efforts we continue to see our collections age and demand for resources grow.
Over the past 15 years the library has taken a leadership role in offering innovative and useful services to the public. The WPL was the first library in Massachusetts to offer computer classes on a large scale. The WPL was the first library in Massachusetts to offer graphical internet access. The WPL was the first library to create and run a comprehensive, town-wide web site.
Looking ahead the Library Trustees see needs that will not be met by the historic level of funding from the Walpole taxpayer. The town continues to provide basic funds for staff, utilities and materials. However, the opportunities to break new ground in our fast-paced technological age must come from private resources. As an example, most of the costs for development and maintenance of these initiatives mentioned above have not come from town appropriated funds but rather through private donations and grant opportunities.
There are pressing needs today that should be addressed. We need to create a viable service program for our young adult population. Solutions within our present space to serve this important, yet vulnerable population will require financial resources. The use of the Children's Room is expanding dramatically as a population of families with young children move into our community. Resources are needed for programming and more material. Long-term, lack of space must be addressed. We foresee demand for better assistive technologies for an aging population, books-on-tape and other emerging delivery media for commuters. New methods of providing information from DVD's, to e-books to neural networks are either arriving or just on the horizon.
We also cannot entirely predict the future for educational and entertainment devices and products. As Marshal McLuhan said in the 1950's "the medium is the message." The medium became television, joined by computers and the Internet. Learning methods and techniques will continue to be adapted and new ones created. The Walpole Public Library has been on the cutting edge in providing information resources to the entire community over the past 125 years. If we wish to retain our role as a "center for lifelong learning," the resources provided by the Endowment will position us to meet that challenge.
Trustees Top of Page
John Sheehan
Virginia Fettig
Maureen Martin Smith
James Manninen
Robert MacDonald